Limp Bizkit's first new album in 10 years, Still Sucks, dropped on Halloween, but only on digital platforms, such as Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and others. Sure, you can purchase MP3 versions of the record, but if you want a physical copy — CD, vinyl or cassette — you are out of luck because they do not exist. But why?

The Stats

Still Sucks debuted at No. 155 on the Billboard 200, making it Limp Bizkit's lowest charting studio album of their career, despite the massive momentum built off the back of the band's viral Lollapalooza performance and Fred Durst's new "Dad Vibes" look. Seemingly overnight, the entirety of rock and metal fans reversed course on Bizkit and went from ridiculing them as nu metal bottom-feeders to kings of a new age. Suddenly, Limp Bizkit were cooler than ever and their back catalog was more than justified.

So, with the stars aligned in the most inconceivable way and a new record imminent, Bizkit instead decided to keep riding the viral wave, teasing new music drops that eventually gave way to a Halloween release.

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Had pre-orders for physical copies been available, the band absolutely could have crushed their first week tally of the 3,500 units attributed to "CDs, LPs, paid digital downloads and paid track equivalent streams." Song sales even doubled right after that Lollapalooza set this summer.

As we know, CDs, LPs and cassettes were not available for purchase and it should be noted that the figure, provided by Ryan Downey's weekly newsletter, did not include streaming equivalents, meaning that on-demand streams of Still Sucks songs were not factored into that total.

To frame the perspective of this figure a little better, check this out — Canadian technical death metal band Archspire had a better first week sales tally. To overstate the obvious, 360 BPM tech-death and multi-platinum nu metal bands are worlds apart in every way possible, especially when it comes to projected album sales.

Looking for a Reason

So, again — why? Why would Limp Bizkit not make a physical copy available for purchase? Vinyl is the hottest it's been since the '80s and has outpaced CD sales for some time now. We've all heard that bands don't make much money off album sales anymore, but that monetary total would likely be more significant for a band such as Limp Bizkit. Their chart position on the Billboard 200 would have been much higher — but maybe that just doesn't matter to them?

Is this a grand statement from Bizkit that album sales just don't matter anymore as streaming has come to dominate figures in just about every genre out there except for rock and metal? For many bands, chart positions and first week sales figures factor in to their ability to land certain tours, whether they will headline or provide direct support and even helps determine festival slot times.

For Limp Bizkit, they don't really need to provide booking agents with stat sheets. They're Limp mothafuckin' Bizkit — and that's all anyone needs to know. They don't even have their own website!

Some Wild Speculation

This whole thing sort of feels like one giant troll move, right?

The fact is, Durst has been trolling (trolling, trolling - yeah!) since the beginning, it just took the whole damn world almost a quarter century to realize it. Still Sucks is a self-deprecating piss-take in which the frontman pokes fun at himself, the band and how much everyone has loved to hate everything Limp Bizkit stands for over the years.

For years, fans had heard about the expected release of Stampede of the Disco Elephants, the album that was intended to succeed 2011's Gold Cobra. Bizkit tried working with members of Bring Me the Horizon to bring new material to fruition, and that never amounted to anything, at least not that we know of.

In June, guitarist Wes Borland (who just launched his official Twitter account — more on that in a moment) said the band had 35 instrumental songs written. That sounds like there's quite a lot more for potential release than the 12 tracks that occupy the full 32-minute runtime of Still Sucks.

Was this album a test? Did Limp Bizkit want to gauge fan reaction to a record where the band makes fun of themselves to a certain degree? It definitely gets everyone — band and fans — on the same page. Let's be honest for a second — without the "Dad Vibes" outfit and a record as over the top as Still Sucks, where would we be? Would fans still have come around to take Bizkit's side or would the hate have continued to flow?

Okay, now back to Borland... "I unfortunately have to be back on Twitter for a project I have coming up. Follow me if you want, or don't. Who cares," he wrote on Instagram in a post that announced his return to Twitter.

Wait a minute! Wes Borland needs to be on Twitter presumably for promotional purposes, but not because of Limp Bizkit? It's possible there's new music from Eat the Day coming, or from some other project, but could Bizkit instead be prepping the release of Stampede of the Disco Elephants?

Again, this is all pure speculation, but, should physical copies of the long-awaited Stampede of the Disco Elephants be available, they would sell in great numbers.

...And What If We're Wrong?

What if we're just reading too deep into all of this, trying to find meaningful significance in something as pure and honest as Still Sucks?

Maybe, just maybe, Limp Bizkit don't give a fuck, which is what they've been desperately trying to tell us the whole time and, for whatever reason, we just can't listen.

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